Going back in time, today

I have been recently playing old next-gen games as of late. Games like: Alan Wake, Bioshock, Prey, Condemned 1 & 2, and Bayonetta. What I’m about to say I believe is a world-wide fact for every person, but everyone’s childhood favorites, whether it be games, movies, books, whatever, will always be that person’s fondest and memorable moments. And those memories will always be compared to the products of today. Which as of late, I’ve seen a lot of re-releases of old games on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. But I’m left here wondering. With all the remakes and re-releases presently being announced, has creativity gone down the drain?

Now, don’t get me wrong. There is plenty of potential still going around the video game universe. But, it doesn’t entirely seem focused on games how they used to be back in the days. With the times changing and our cultures evolving, we have come to a point where our perspectives of gaming are changing. And for some may be a welcome. For others, a disaster.

But back to the point at hand, releases of old games are currently in development to be sold again on the market. Some of these games will bring extras so us gamers don’t feel like it’s entirely the same content we played back then. But the amount of these games is becoming staggering. With announcements of the Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Zone of the Enders, and Resident Evil franchises getting HD overhauls, it’s quite clear that something is going on.

Now I understand the ones I just mentioned are all from Japanese developers and their country has been through a rough year with all the earthquakes and tsunamis they’ve been through. Companies still need a form of making some profit even if the country is in a debilitated state (But that hasn’t stopped Japan from being able to do the Tokyo Game Show convention this year). But there is one Japanese company that abuses their re-release power way too much, and that would be Capcom.

SHOOOOOOORYUKEN......IN HD!!!!!

Simply mentioning all the Street Fighter games in existence might even put Final Fantasy to shame. Capcom brings out way too many ports and updated versions from their current video game library. You would think we might understand by now that it’s a trap to buy a game from them to find out half a year later they made the very same game again with extra content. And yet we still buy it. Either we are really stupid, or Capcom knows how to play this manipulating game very well. And I am still amazed by the audacity of them making Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 instead of making more DLC for the original MVC3.

Plus, there are too many reboots. I know it’s good sometimes to take a fresh new look or a different perspective on some classics. But taking Tomb Raider for example, this franchise already got a reboot (and a decent one I might add), and now we’re rebooting it again? Did I miss something here? Square Enix and Eidos better know what they’re doing is all I can say. Devil May Cry is another franchise that I’m wondering why it needed a reboot. For all I cared, they could have just made an entire new story with a new character instead of ruining an icon demon hunter. And to make it worse, Capcom left it in the hands of Ninja Theory (Heavenly Sword, Enslaved). Not that Ninja Theory makes bad games, but there’s a pretty big difference compared to the way how they do action/adventure and how Capcom does it. Now Sonic on the other hand is going in the right direction with Sonic Generations. But as the usual Sonic flowchart has shown us, videos and images can be deceiving till the final product is unveiled.

As I said at the beginning of my article, old classics will always be a fond memory for anyone, but all these releases of the same games can be kind of…tiresome. I know there’s a young audience out there that has never had the chance to enjoy some of the golden years that some of us older gamers have been through, but instead of bringing out something that feels overused, why not bring out something that feels almost dead? I swear that if Sega would release Shenmue 1 and 2 again, the possible development of the third installment could be well around the corner.